Movable barriers of various kinds are known in the art. These include, but are not limited to, a wide variety of segmented and one-piece garage doors, rolling shutters, pivoting guard arms, sliding gates, and so forth. In many cases, a movable barrier drive serves as a motive force to cause selective movement of such a barrier between open and closed positions.
Various such movable barrier drives are known in the art. In many cases, such a drive couples to the movable barrier via a drive linkage of choice, such as a chain, a belt, or the like. To operate correctly, of course, such a drive linkage should be suitably taut. This can often mean being neither too loose nor too tight. As installation settings can vary one to the other, properly adjusting this tension often comprises an installation detail that cannot be fully attended to in a factory setting.
In many cases, and particularly where price is a significant concern, achieving a proper adjustment of the drive linkage can comprise achieving a proper placement of the movable drive itself with respect to the movable barrier. Often, however, the installation setting itself renders such placement challenging. For example, it will often be the case that a movable barrier drive must ultimately be securely and non-temporarily attached to a wall or ceiling to complete the installation. It can be necessary, however, to first seek to test, set, and/or adjust the drive linkage prior to making this secure and non-temporary affixment.
This can mean holding the movable barrier drive in the anticipated installation location prior to making the secure and non-temporary attachment. In many cases, this can be difficult to safely and readily achieve by the installer. This can mean, for example, attempting to simply hold the drive in the test position while simultaneously manipulating the drive linkage to assess the corresponding achieved tautness. Such an approach can be fatiguing, prone to error, and even presents some risk of damage to the drive should the installer lose their grip and allow the drive to fall.
As another approach, the installer can simply install the drive in a given location and then test the drive linkage for tautness. Upon determining that the drive linkage is either too loose or too tight, the installer can then uninstall the drive and try a different position. This can be repeated until the installer achieves success. Such an approach can again be fatiguing and again presents some opportunities for the drive to drop and become damaged.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions with respect to their corresponding respective areas of inquiry and study except where specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.